I found it surreal that so many people made a point of saying that Sarah Palin’s “performance” in the debate last night was all right, she didn’t make any big gaffes, etc.
What have we come to that it boils down to “performance,” in the literal theatrical sense of the word?
The problem is, to me, that both McCain and Palin and the Republican machine are left only with lies, trying to cover that up with “performance” — and in the meantime our Democratic nominees have no one to really debate with.
What it would have been like had there been a real challenge of ideas? I can hardly imagine it, but I can enough to know that I’d have liked to see both Obama and Biden have to state their case, in specifics, as to why they were the better choice.
At this point, they are the only choice. And the US is not the better for that.
No one brought up Katrina or the over 300 people still missing from Hurricane Ike, or how folks are coping with the floods recently deluging Iowa . No one brought up the poor. No one brought up immigration. And that’s just a few examples. They couldn’t … the entire debates and campaigns now are directed to the desirable “undecided voter.”
I understand that. I understand that’s politics. But there are consequences to this kind of politics.
I’m not nostalgic for the past, there were terrible things our country did in the past. When I was growing up, the Jim Crow laws were still in force, the civil rights struggle was in full flower, we were a conservative nation being challenged by its own people to do better. And there also was progress, in the sense that more opportunities opened up for more people who had been denied opportunity until then.
But that was the past. What we face now in the new millennium is different and will require new solutions and new ways of thinking. We can certainly use many of the tools forged by the leaders of the past, but those tools have to be used in new ways.
The biggest challenge though, I think, is for the citizens of this country to reconnect to government. Eight years of lies, crime and cynicism have divided and fragmented the body politic. Our corporate/media monopolies have ripped apart the public square, freedom of speech, commerce, and the workplace. The state of the union is frayed to the breaking point. We have become spectators to power rather than participants in democracy.
Paying taxes is part of that power insofar as the body politic having a stake in the infrastructure of society, from roads to schools to hospitals. So are strong communities who elect leaders with vision and ability to local offices. These are only two of the ways in which citizens connect with government for the benefit of the whole.
Hard times ahead. Global climate change. End of empire. Trillions of dollars of debt. War and violence. Hunger and social inequity.
When I say “government,” I am not speaking of our present United States of America. Even if we somehow manage to restore the Constitution, the challenges we face are now global, not national. But as one country among many, we can make a difference, if we take back our power and reconnect to the reality of our times. We can make a difference if we form a more perfect union, one in which there is solidarity towards the essential principles that make us human and not only beasts that kill.
The power I’d like to see is that power which puts the right person in the right job, whether it be in federal, state, city or local government, whether it be in business or science. There are people all over this country who are qualified in their fields and who are languishing under this criminal and incompetent misAdministration as well as our bloated and useless corporate/media monopolies.
So this is my Friday ramble. There’s a saying in the I-Ching that the old fruit must die before new seed can develop. We are now seeing the death of the US empire, for better or worse. There are opportunities amid this chaos, and there is power to be regained.
A happy weekend to all.
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Getting cold in the big apple … makes me sleepy.
from this week on this
Almost a year ago, I talked about a co-worker Pakou Hang. She is leaving her position with us and is hoping that if Obama wins the election, she will be able to get a position in his administration.
At her goodbye lunch this week, I finally had some time to ask her what kind of position she hopes to get and what she’d like to work on. She said she was hoping for a position in the Department of Labor working on developing plans to implement economic development in the area of green jobs.
For just a minute I had the opportunity to think about people of quality, compassion, intelligence and commitment working in our federal government again. Now that’s hope!!!!
And just because I love watching it, here’s a little video of Pakou talking about her mentor…Paul Wellstone to a group of school children.
Just got in from Las Vegas, it was a bit surreal to be there when things are so fragile everywhere else. I think I don’t “get” Vegas. But apparently the unemployment rate is going up there and I heard chit chat that the casinos that looked very crowded to me were actually down on attendance.
As for Palin. The expectations for the recent debate for her “performance” were set so ridiculously low that of course pundits/critics were pleased. If you expect a big pile of shit and just get a small one…. well…
. . . any more, only drama criticism: “He sighed too much.” “He looked at his watch.” “He seemed sincere.” “She gave the camera good face.” No discussion at all of whether anything is good or bad public policy, only of how effectively the salesperson performs the act of selling it.
Also, as you’ve noted, setting the performance bar of “expectations” (whose expectations, exactly?) at a subterranean level ensures a “victory” by anyone who is not a chimpanzee. Sarah Palin didn’t actually piss on the carpet (where the McCain campaign and the corporate media had put the “expectations” bar), so therefore the corporate pundits were ready to put on straight faces and actually declare her “the equal” of Biden! Fortunately, the public didn’t buy the pundit nonsense. Every poll I’ve seen where they asked real people what they thought gave Biden the victory by margins approaching 2 to 1, or better.
info than normally seems to come out of a debate. I figure because he had all that time where he couldn’t attack her, and needed to fill the gaps. I would have liked even more, but he did give me more than I expected.
I would love to see a debate like I think it was LOGO had with the dem candidates for the primary. The one where they brought each of them out separatly and asked questions with follow ups to get real answers.
I feel needy that I want real questions asked and answered.
Getting qualified, caring people back in govt. would be fantastic. Also getting back to being a cooperative part of the world community.
The USA should have seen it coming. Empires always fail, and fall.
…it’s really amazing what ten minutes will do.
When I first read this essay I was all like, right on.
And then I got this phone call. A kid who I’ve known half his life, and don’t know that many…a very gentle young man, kind to his core…he hasn’t felt like he had too many options for awhile. And…after a series of yeses and nos…he has a ship out date. For basic, and infantry.
There are opprotunities in this chaos. Sure. But it’s all policy. And later. And all I wanted was enough money to be able to offer him something…now. Anything. And I didn’t have it. Sometimes I do but not now. And all the discussion of policy just seems distant. Even the good stuff seems…meh.
Never comment crying. There should be a fuckin’ safety on these things.
Anyway nice essay NPK.
Campaigning became purely performance art in 1980 with the victory of The Greatest American of All Time.
The root problem here is the American Constitution.
Until people are willing to doubt it at least on individual components –which they and especially we are not– there is no path forward.